8600GT M differences

Hi guys. Im new here and wondering If I may pick your brains.

I have a 9920g that I'm trying to repair. The MXM card has gone duff, as expected, and I have tried to replace it with another nvidia 8600GT M card (brand new - in fact tried two now.) But still have no graphics.

The story goes like this...

The original card (A 8600GT M 512MB, Green board, serial number VG.8PG06.001) was working fine, then started to drop out in the usual way, a blockey screen etc. I overheated the graphics card to rejoin the GPU solder back to the board and it lasted a few months then started to happen again - as expected. I reheated it again and it worked for a little while before the problem reoccurred.

In the mean time I purchased a new 8600GT M 512MB (a blue card this time with serial number 4559G130L11C2IFT00-V11 and LS-354JP3L819) and on fitting it, the machine would not boot, had black screen, and NO external screen output either. This perplexed me as I presumed that one nvidia 8600GT M 512MB card would be the same as the original. Apparently not though. I fitted a second NEW card just to make sure the other new one was not duff as well... same problem!

So then I tried a few experiments... With NO card installed the machine would boot and load up windows 7 without issue, obviously with just a black screen though (I hear the windows boot up music still). And even with the original card installed it would boot into windows, but blocky VGA screen res.

I then left it for a few weeks before attempting another look at the problem. And discovered that the original card has since failed completely. I have also used the hard drive in another machine too, so there is NOW no original OS (windows 7 installed either). I've put a NEW, formatted Hard Drive in now though.

So, here's the big question I have.. I'm wondering if anyone knows of a way I can get my NEW blue nvidia card to recognize in this laptop so I can install windows 7 and have a working screen too?

Surely the NEW nvidia 8600GT M 512MB MXM2 card must have a similar vBios to the original? Or the 9920g Bios upgrade be compatible with this new card? Any ideas.

Many thanks...

Vinny

 

If you have a soldering iron, try replacing the BIOS chip on the good card with the chip from the failed one.

Or, use a different machine to flash the card to the 9920G VBIOS.

However, if you have a blue card with larger-than-usual screw holes, and a board marking of "P555" (the Asus C90S card), then I can't guarantee that the 9920G VBIOS (designed for the board marked "P407") will work in it.

Alternatively, try installing my modded 9920G SBIOS. In my limited testing, once it is installed, any Acer VBIOS will work.

 

Thank you netrolller, that was what i'd hoped. where could I get your sbios from.??

This card has same hole size as original i believe too.

Cheers again for your help.

Vinny

A bit more info. This new card I have is for a Compal FL90/91/IFL90. The number on the card is IFT00-v11
I have a Compal FL90 that I can install it in to flash the VBios, using either Windows 7 or Linux Ubuntu.

 

An FL90 card will not work, unless you solder a VBIOS chip on it. The FL90 "cheats" by integrating the VBIOS in the SBIOS (illegal for an MXM card - the MXM spec explicitly requires a ROM chip on the card).

My SBIOS can be downloaded from the x920G vs. 9600M GT thread, but it won't help unless you add a ROM chip that contains a true MXM VBIOS. And if you need to solder on a ROM chip anyway, then why not use one that has the 9920G-specific VBIOS?

 

YUO CAN DO THAT!? just solder on or replace the bios chip with another? just plop it on there (with soldering)?

 

Could you point out whic is the vbios chip on the old board and where it should go on the new board? Cheers netrolller

 

Are you actually saying there is NO vbios chip already on my blue card (IFT00) card then, and I cant flash it with the acer vbios with nflash... obviously, if it's not even got one?

Of is there actually a vbios chip installed that I can try and flash before locating and resoldering the original one from my green card?

Obviously I cant install a new sbios without any screen outputs, as even the vga output on the mboard wont work without a card, so I need to get a card working whatever.

Cheers again netrolller. Top man.

 

AFAIK IFL90/IFT00 cards have no VBIOS chip at all. Before you can flash an Acer VBIOS, you need to solder a VBIOS chip to the card. Beware: not all cards recognize user-added VBIOS chips, some also require replacing an SMD resistor (fortunately the old, bad card should have a resistor of the right value, but moving that over to the IFL90 card may be a daunting task for those not skilled in SMD soldering).

SBIOS can be updated with no screen output using a crisis disk (for the 9920G, you should use a USB flash drive for creating a crisis disk, but a 5920G will require a floppy disk in a USB floppy drive, while the 5720G seems to prefer CDs as its crisis recovery medium.)

@cdoublejj: If the card already has a BIOS chip on it, but it is broken or contains a VBIOS so wrong as to prevent flashing another VBIOS, then moving over the ROM chip from another card will always work.
If the target card originally has NO BIOS chip, then SMD-fu may be required (e.g. replacing the 15K resistor between SCLK and GND with a 35K one on the Toshiba GT 230M, or adding three 10K resistors to the back side of the Toshiba HD 4650 DDR3) before the newly-added chip is recognized.

 

I just google-FUed some SMD soldering how tos never hurts to learn.